Business climate important to 59th District candidates

A life-long state resident who saw her son graduate from college but move out of Illinois for a good job is concerned enough about the future that she's challenging the incumbent in the 59th House District in the November election.

Republican Leslie Munger of Lincolnshire has filed to run against Democratic state Rep. Carol Sente of Vernon Hills. With the deadline for candidates passed, neither faces an opponent in the March primary election.

Sente is seeking a third term in the district that includes Wheeling, Buffalo Grove, Vernon Hills, Green Oaks, Mundelein, Lincolnshire and Riverwoods.

"My largest accomplishment was instead of leaving major budget decisions only in the hands of leaders, the 'Budgeting for Results' legislation which I wrote and passed, takes a more inclusive and transparent approach," Sente said. "Now, state agencies are required to explain their funding requests in front of bipartisan budget committees and then each committee is tasked with reviewing items line-by-line, ultimately prioritizing spending on needed, proven-effective programs."

The decision to get involved in politics after years in the business and volunteer worlds was very personal for Munger.

"I decided to run because like many people around here, I am saddened by what is happening to the state I love," said Munger, whose oldest son, Tom, graduated in the top 10 percent of his mechanical engineering class in 2013 at the University of Illinois but discovered the higher-paying job opportunities were out of state.

"One of the hardest things I've ever done was to pack up my son and move him permanently out of the house 1,200 miles away," to Houston. "That was a wake-up call and one of the motivators for me. If kids want to stay in Illinois and have great jobs, we should be able to provide them."

Sente, a former business owner and current vice president of FGM Architects in Oak Brook, said she believes performance-based state budgeting is an effective approach. "That is why I pushed for this initiative to help the state streamline spending while providing the most cost-effective, crucial services," she said.

Sente also supported the pension reform bill that recently passed.

"I believe it is comprehensive because we're making changes to the component and holding the state accountable," Sente said. "We're making the state pay billions of dollars to make up their loss of funding pensions all these years. This was a compromise between the four caucuses. I felt like it was thoughtful. This will repair the system and bring it back to stability and bring it to 100 percent funding in a 30-year time period. It will immediately begin to stabilize the system and save the state money."

Sente also sees the need to make Illinois more business-friendly. As chair of the business group and incentive committee, she has concerns about tax incentive packages offered to larger companies while small businesses are overlooked. Instead, she plans to review small business LLC filing fees while looking at ways to connect more employers with potential employees.

"In terms of our business climate, we need to connect education and employers and make kids career-ready," Sente said. "We're not connecting those groups and being as thoughtful as we can in engaging the employer with the university for the jobs that are available today."

She said many Illinois manufacturing jobs, in particular, are going unfilled and she'd like to see more colleges training for this type of job environment.

She considers herself an accessible legislator who regularly hosts coffees and town hall meetings in her district as well as being an advocate for youth, introducing bills preventing underage drinking parties and allowing 17 year olds to vote in primary elections.

Munger, 57, was born and raised in Joliet, and has lived in Lincolnshire for 20 years. She has been a full-time community volunteer for the last 13 years, chosen as the 2013 Riverside Foundation Auxiliary Volunteer of the Year where she has worked with the developmentally disabled, and the 2004 Lincolnshire Citizen of the Year. She also served as a Cub Scout den leader, contributed to fitness curriculum enhancements with the Lincolnshire elementary school district's foundation, as well as being a three-year football mom while her sonswere younger. Most recently, she has served as a Republican precinct committeewoman and president of the mom's club at her son's fraternity at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

She believes her 25 years in business and brand management at such companies as Proctor & Gamble and Helene Curtis where she led large staffs and $800 million budgets prepares her to serve in the General Assembly.

To create a better business climate and more jobs, she would like to see tax reform, particularly for corporation taxes while also bringing the state's spending and budgets back in line. She also believes that the pension reform efforts are a good start, but require a more comprehensive approach. She expressed disappointment in Sente's performance.

"She's a very nice person, but I think she is yet another one of those people who have failed to lead," Munger said. "She has not led on any of the issues that are important to the district. If she lived next door, I'd probably have barbecues with her, but overall, she's been a weak and relatively ineffective legislator."